Holy See to U.N.: Sustainable Development Must Be Based on Respect for Life

Friday, October 28, 2016

On the one year
anniversary of the United Nations’ adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development, the Holy See elaborated its view of the principles in the outcome
document “Transforming our world: the
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”and repeatedly expressed
support for the lives of unborn children and of right to life from conception
to natural death.

The Holy See
Mission to the United Nations in New York explained the purpose of the Note in
a statement
that included: “the
Holy See wished to consider certain general principles in evaluating the 2030
Agenda and in interpreting and implementing it at the national and
international levels. It laid out the key points of Pope Francis’ 25 September
2015 Address to the United Nations and considered the 2030 Agenda in light of
those and other principles.”

The Holy See
reinforced that it was agreed that the 2030 Agenda was to be interpreted
according to “international law” with a “proper interpretation” in accordance
with “consolidated and recognized principles” and that ‘goals, targets and
eventual indicators should not be considered in isolation from the Agenda”.
This point stands in stark contrast to the work of UN treaty monitoring bodies,
IPPF, Amnesty International, the Center for Reproductive Rights and others that
promote the falsehood that access to abortion is an international human right
despite the fact that no UN treaty recognizes a so-called ‘right to abortion’.

The concept of
the common good, in addition to principles of solidarity, subsidiary, national
sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of States were
mentioned asnecessary guides.

Also highlighted was the fact that the Holy
See had made clarifications and reservations on Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) targets that include the terms “reproductive health” and “sexual and
reproductive health and reproductive rights”:

“The Holy See rejects the
interpretation that considers abortion or access to abortion, maternal surrogacy or sex-selective abortion, and
sterilization as dimensions of these
terms.”

In regards to goals on health, the Holy See
exhorted:

The term “healthy life” is to be
understood to mean the health of the person as a whole —including the most vulnerable, the unborn, the sick, the
disabled —during all stages of
development of the life of the person, taking into consideration every dimension (physical, psychological,
spiritual and emotional).

Since the right to health is a
corollary to the right to life, it can never be used as a way to end the life of a person, who is such
from conception until natural death. The same
is true for targets 3.7 and 5.6. In brief, target 3.7 advocates “universal
access to sexual and reproductive
health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive
health into national strategies
and programmes” while target 5.6 calls for “universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive
rights”.

Women were acknowledged for their special
role in the family and society and to integral human development. The Holy
See’s statement included:

(a) This is due to their unique presence in
the creation of life as physical and spiritual mothers, who have special, but
not exclusive gifts,that include defending, nurturing, and caring for life,
from conception until natural death.

(b) It follows that women must be
promoted and given the means to realize their inherent dignity as feminine
persons and protected from psychological and physical violence, through all
forms of abortion, including female feticide and female infanticide, so that
they can contribute their gifts in all contexts of society, including informal
peace processes (such as the family and various organizations) and formal peace
processes.

(c) The Holy See emphasizes that any
references to “gender”, “gender equality” and “gender equality and empowerment
of women and girls” are understood according to the ordinary, generally
accepted usage of the word “gender” based on the biological identity that is
male and female, which is, in turn, reinforced by the numerous references in
the 2030 Agenda to both sexes (paras. 15, 20, 25). Pope Francis, following in
the footsteps of his predecessors, has frequently spoken about the perils of
“gender ideology” which denies the relevance of biological sex, male and
female, in opining that there is a plethora of “genders” based on one’s
subjective perceptions.15

In regards to
the rights and duties of the family, the Holy See reaffirmed its position that “the human person, a social being, is at the
heart of the 2030 Agenda means —and the Holy See emphasizes —that the family,
the natural and fundamental unit of society, based on marriage between one man
and one woman, is also at the centre of development, and in accordance with
international human rights law is entitled to protection by society and the
State. The 2030 Agenda also rightly recognizes the importance of “cohesive
communities and families” (para. 25).

Pope Francis’ warnings about “oppressive
lending systems” which coerce and pressure governments and of the perils of
“ideological colonization” were repeated. The Holy See referenced the
Convention on the Rights of the Child and the responsibility of parents “to protect the rights of the children ‘before as well as after birth’
and together with the State must ensure access “to pre-natal and post-natal
health care” (Convention on the Rights of the Child, preamble, para. 9 and para.
24).”

Importantly,
the Holy See stated that it “reads the 2030 Agenda, with particular regard to the
reduction of preventable “newborn, child and maternal mortality”, so as to
include the unborn child.”

PNCI
appreciates and welcomes the Holy See’s statement, especially as pro-abortion
activists increase their strategic networking on ways to use the 2030 Agenda to
promote access to abortion, contraception and comprehensive sexuality
education, including for girls as young as 10 years old.